beg the question vs sit on the fence

beg the question

verb
  • To sidestep or fail to address a question. 

  • To raise or prompt a question. 

  • To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii). 

sit on the fence

verb
  • To remain neutral on a certain topic, to not have a stance or opinion. 

How often have the words beg the question and sit on the fence occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )